Voiceovers and Being Effective – The Not Silent Blog 4/11/17

In last week’s blog, I mentioned being effective as a voice talent and it got me thinking: what do voice talents need to be & do to be truly effective?

Every time I hear that word it reminds me of the time when I worked for Bennigan’s and the Regional Manager came in to inspect our restaurant. After watching the waiters for a little while, he told our General Manager they were “nice, but ineffective”. That really hit home with me.

As voice talents we certainly want to be successful, valuable, useful, and overall effective. Why is it that so many voice talents starting out are more like a clueless 20-something waiter: nice, but ineffective?

I think the biggest reason is that you don’t know what you don’t know. In training circles, it’s called “unconsciously unskilled”. When most aspiring voice talents enter the industry, they don’t know what skills & tools they need to acquire & develop beyond a nice voice and a demo to be effective.

With all that in mind, I ask again: what do voice talents need to be & do to be truly effective?

TIP OF THE WEEK

Effective voice talents:

Have sufficient Cash Flow to invest in their business. They spend money to make money.

Procure the right Tools to run their business. They do their research to get the right supplies & equipment to run their business.

Develop their Technique. They get quality training from reputable coaches in the genres they want to pursue.

Are students of Marketing. They know how to brand themselves, comport themselves on social media, and have strong people skills.

Focus on the Health of their business and themselves. They think and execute like a business. They don’t operate like needy, desperate starving-artist employees.

NEWS AND NOTES

VO Strategist News!

It’s “Any 2” April! Book any two sessions with me in April and you get 25% off each session. Go to www.VOStrategist.com to choose from the selection of sessions or make up your own session.

My next Edge Studio “Business And Money 201” webinar will be Thursday, April 20 @8PM EST. The subject: Paperwork. We’re going to talk about how to use paper, digital, and cloud-based bookkeeping in harmony. Click here to register.

Announcement!

Free Summer Listening – Aimed at Teens 13+, SYNC 2017 will give away 32 titles — two paired audiobook downloads a week, starting April 27th and ending August 16th! Check out the complete list of exciting audiobook titles from award-winning authors such as Daniel José Older, M.T. Anderson, Franz Kafka, Ruta Sepetys, and Nikki Grimes. The SYNC program is a project of AudioFile Magazine in partnership with OverDrive and audiobook publishers.

HAPPY HAPPYS

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, The H is Silent, but I’m Not.

Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice OverStrategist, and is currently producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.

1 Response

Tom
You are absolutely correct. I was one of those “unconsciously unskilled”. It took exactly what you have prescribed in your blog. Coaching especially. Voice over is a skill. It is something that you are constantly learning as you progress through your career. All of the other points are also well made. I also think that constantly listening to those who are successful helps you learn.http://www.craigsvoicetalent.com